They'll be on the road for over a week, something rare in football circles.

Usually teams in the CFL depart a couple of days before a road game and return the day after.

However, with the Eskimos facing the Hamilton Tiger-Cats five days after their road encounter with the Toronto Argonauts, the team has decided to stay out East between games.

"I think it's great for the team," said Eskimos head coach Danny Maciocia.

"I think the last time we did this was in 2002 or 2003. But it was a great week for us to stay out there. Basically all we had was each other, and it's a great week for us because it's football around the clock."

The Eskimos depart on Friday for their game against the Argonauts on Sunday.

They'll stay in Burlington, Ont., to prepare for their encounter with the Ticats the following Friday.

"We have a an opportunity to play two games out there," Maciocia said. "And even though it is a short week, the focus will be on football and the guys in the locker-room will be spending a lot of time with each other between meetings. It's a good situation and it can possibly define who we are on this road trip."

Later in the season the Eskimos have back-to-back games in Montreal and Winnipeg.

However, despite having only four days between games they will return home from Montreal, then head back out to Winnipeg.

"This is really the only long trip we've got," Maciocia said. "But we felt it was one that we felt we couldn't go, come back, get our work in and go back out again. We felt it would have been too tough on the guys, so we decided to stay out there.

"We've been working on this little project for the last couple of months, so we're all set up.